A trailer released today for SOMA explores a problem in Frictional Games' upcoming sci-fi horror game: People keep killing themselves.
Press play above to see the minute-long trailer, which features in-game footage and voice acting from SOMA, which is scheduled for a 2015 release on PlayStation 4 and Windows PC.
Creative director Thomas Grip took to the PlayStation Blog blog this morning to reveal that the game is about a week away from its alpha phase, and about five of the game's planned eight hours of content are playable. In the final game, players will hide, search, solve puzzles, run and explore. All of those elements will be tied together with the game's story.
"It's important that SOMA is constantly drenching the player in storytelling," Grip wrote. "We need to make sure there is always a red thread of narrative running through the game. We don't want you to say 'Oh, here comes a puzzle section,' but to constantly feel as if you are being told an interactive story. Getting this right is tricky as there still needs to be some challenge in progressing, but not so much that solving a difficult puzzle becomes your sole focus. Now that we're close to alpha it's possible for us to test this and tweak where needed."
Frictional first teased the game early last October with its debut trailer and a gameplay debut trailer followed shortly thereafter. Grip explained later that the Swedish studio hopes to use the game's monsters to explore deliberately deep questions.
"Our goal is for SOMA to not just be another carnival ride of cheap scares," Grip wrote. "It is meant to chill you to your core, and confront you with questions about your very existence."
